diff --git a/scripts/update-shards.sh b/scripts/update-shards.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..47dde35056a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/update-shards.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env sh
+
+# Update shards release.
+#
+# Usage:
+#
+#    scripts/update-shards.sh [<version>]
+#
+# This helper script pulls the latest Shards release from GitHub and updates all
+# references to the shards release in this repository.
+#
+# See Crystal release checklist: https://github.com/crystal-lang/distribution-scripts/blob/master/processes/shards-release.md#post-release
+
+set -eux
+
+SHARDS_VERSION=${1:-}
+if [ -z "$SHARDS_VERSION" ]; then
+  # fetch latest release from GitHub
+  SHARDS_VERSION=$(gh release view --repo crystal-lang/shards --json tagName --jq .tagName | cut -c 2-)
+fi
+
+# Update shards ref in mingw64 and win-msvc build actions
+sed -i "/repository: crystal-lang\/shards/{n;s/ref: .*/ref: ${shards_version}/}" .github/workflows/mingw-w64.yml .github/workflows/win_build_portable.yml